Beyond 2017- Share the Love, Spread the Joy

The day started as early as 8 a.m with the committee anxiously waiting for the arrival of the children and to later gather them at the Sunway University Art Gallery. However, they did arrive earlier than expected and so we took the opportunity to show them around the campus. As they reached the Art Gallery, the children received a warm welcome by the emcees, Joshua Khoo and Ying Jun. Bryan Tan, SCSC President then gave a welcome speech. 

We did face the initial challenges of getting the children to feel comfortable enough to speak to us. Our members, however, were quick to break the ice by communicating in different languages and soon after, the children were more confident to interact with us. The ice breaking games such as Human Bingo, Island Moving and Captain’s Call further sealed the bond between the children and the members. 

The next activity was the station games. One of our members led the 5 teams and took the children to 3rd floor classrooms and 4th floor roof top garden. Their tasks were to match clues given to them to the game stations, complete the activities to get the next clue and proceed to the next station. The winning team would be the group that was able to complete all the games in the shortest time.

HanaTama kindly provided the children with a scrumptious Japanese themed lunch while the committee members feasted on the delectable Garlic Chicken Rice. The children were obviously thrilled by the games and chatted all the way through their lunch. 

The children were then divided into two groups for the next activities. The first group went on to the VR lab to participate in possibly their first virtual reality experience. The second group were tasked to design their own Beyond 2017 t-shirts with crayons. The groups then swapped activities to allow all the children to enjoy both these exciting experiences. They were overjoyed to try out the latest gaming technology which we hope would be truly memorable to them. 

Furthermore, their whole experience at this event was now imprinted on their self-designed t-shirts. We hope that their added personal touch to the design of their own t-shirts would seal their memories with us here at Sunway for a long time to come. 

Once these activities were done, the children took a short break and had a good laugh whilst watching the hilarious Mr Bean series. They were then taken to the next session by Assoc Prof Dr. Foo who delivered a motivational talk on how you could become your own hero. Prof Foo got the ball rolling by showing the children a short video on superheroes and asked the children to draw their favourite superhero. The next important thing they had to do was explain why the character they had drawn was to them a superhero. The children surprised us with their choices and we were captivated by their reasons for choosing these superheroes. The children, too, listened intently as life pointers were shared by Prof on how we, too, could become superheroes. Once the talk was over, the committee thanked Prof Foo for his support and time in making this event a success

It was then time for dinner and the children were excited to have their all-time favourite of KFC. Once dinner was over, the children were given prizes for their active participation and also goodie bags from the sponsors.

When it was time to part ways, we saw on their faces the joy of having had a wonderful time at the event. The children had enjoyed themselves tremendously and do did the members who learned so much by being with these children. Beyond 2017 was indeed a memorable experience for all of us and we appreciated these wonderful moments shared with the children. This event had taught us the importance of being grateful for the things we have. We had also learned about great teamwork and picked up leadership and problem solving skills as we navigated through the obstacles that arose throughout the organising of this event. A final note, we are pleased to say that Beyond 2017 was indeed a great success!